ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft makes historic rendezvous with comet 67P

The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Rosetta spacecraft has made a historic rendezvous with the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, marking an end to a ten-year, six-billion-kilometre chase through the solar system.

Rosetta was launched on board an Ariane rocket in March 2004. The comet was located more than 400 million kilometres from Earth and travelled towards the sun at around 55,000kmph. The information gathered will now be used to decipher the origins of solar system 4.6 billion years ago.

ESA director general Jean-Jacques Dordain said: "Europe’s Rosetta is now the first spacecraft in history to rendezvous with a comet, a major highlight in exploring our origins. Discoveries can start.

"After ten years, five months and four days travelling towards our destination, looping around the Sun five times and clocking up 6.4 billion kilometres, we are delighted to announce finally ‘we are here’."

During the following two months, the spacecraft will fly in a sortie of triangle shaped orbits to plot the surface of the icy body and then carry out tests with its onboard instruments to analyse the comet’s nucleus.

The mission will offer scientists with close-up measurements of the comet as it changes from a cold and inactive state to an active body, shedding massive amounts of dust and gas as it swings around the sun.

In November, the spacecraft will launch a small Philae lander onto the comet’s surface, enabling researchers to analyse material accumulated directly from the comet.

The lander will also deliver X-rays through the comet’s nucleus to sensors on Rosetta to expose the inner structure of the body.

ESA Rosetta spacecraft operations manager Sylvain Lodiot said: "Arriving at the comet is really only just the beginning of an even bigger adventure, with greater challenges still to come as we learn how to operate in this unchartered environment, start to orbit and, eventually, land.

"Over the next few months, in addition to characterising the comet nucleus and setting the bar for the rest of the mission, we will begin final preparations for another space history first: landing on a comet.

"After landing, Rosetta will continue to accompany the comet until its closest approach to the Sun in August 2015 and beyond, watching its behaviour from close quarters to give us a unique insight and real-time experience of how a comet works as it hurdles around the Sun."

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Image: Rosetta’s historic rendezvous with the 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko comet. Photo: courtesy of ESA.